NEW YORK, Jan 31 (Reuters) – U.S. crude oil production in November surpassed 10 million barrels per day for the first time since 1970, and neared the all-time output record, the Energy Information Administration said in a monthly report on Wednesday.
Oil output rose 384,000 barrels per day (bpd) in November from October to 10.038 million bpd, the agency said. The agency also increased its October estimate by 17,000 bpd to 9.654 million bpd, according to the report, known as the 914 production report.
The November 2017 output was just shy of the 10.044 million bpd record reached in November 1970. The monthly average oil output for the U.S. has only surpassed 10 million bpd on one other occasion, in October 1970.
The most recent gain was the third consecutive rise for U.S. crude output, and was driven by increasing production from shale basins in North Dakota and Texas, and the Gulf of Mexico. Output from the Gulf of Mexico rose 14.4 percent to 1.666 million bpd in the month, while Texas output rose 3 percent to 3.891 million bpd, and North Dakota rose 1.2 percent to 1.178 million bpd.
U.S. gasoline demand fell 1 percent, or 92,000 bpd, to 9.141 million bpd, from a 2.8 percent rise in October, according to a separate monthly report also issued by the agency Wednesday. U.S. distillate demand, which includes heating oil, was up 5.8 percent, or 227,000 bpd, from a year earlier at 4.165 million bpd, compared with a decline of 0.5 percent in October.
Total oil demand rose 3.1 percent, or 619,000 barrels a day from a year earlier, compared with a 0.8 percent rise in October, according to the Petroleum Supply Monthly report.
U.S. natural gas production in the lower 48 states rose to a new all-time high of 86.3 billion cubic feet per day in November, up from the prior record of 84.0 bcfd in October, according to EIA’s 914 production report.
It was driven by an 8 percent gain in Pennsylvania, to a record high of 15.7 bcfd, and a 5.6 percent gain in Louisiana to 6.8 bcfd, the highest since April 2013.
Texas, the nation’s largest gas producer, increased 1.3 percent to 22.7 bcfd, the most since April 2016.